Month: March 2007

Pattern: My own – ankle socks with short row heelYarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, one skein in FreesiaNeedles: 5, US 1 Bamboo DPN’sTime: Started 3/23/07, Completed 3/28/07Notes: I only bought one skein (that’s all the LYS had) and thought I could surely make a pair of ankle socks out of 50 grams of yarn. Well, I most certainly did and then some. I sure do have small feet because I’m sure I have enough left for another ankle sock! I love how they came out and I even wore them to work today :o)

I got my late Christmas preset from my grandma in the mail today. She sent me a sweaters worth of yarn and a set of Denise Interchangeable needles :o)

The yarn came as a kit that she bought years ago and never made. This is the pattern book that came with the yarn:

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the yarn as of yet – I’ve been working on other projects. I’m nearly done with the socks I started last week, but I haven’t gotten far on my sweater. Work has been keeping me down and not wanting to do much when I get home. I think I’ll knit more once we get settled in our new place.

I also got the best needle cases in the mail yesterday from a recent swap. I love them! I love the patters on both of them and they are perfect for all my needles.

I just found the perfect thing to do with all the Noro Kureyon that’s been sitting in my stash. A log cabin blanket. I’ve been contemplating different things to do with it and this seems like the thing that I would get the most use out of it. I’d hate to knit another scarf I won’t wear (my neck is very sensitive and I couldn’t use Noro Kureyon for a scarf for myself), or a vest that I won’t wear because it’s too hot in my office, or anything else that wouldn’t really use up all of the yarn I have anyhow and wouldn’t use.

A blanket would be just the thing!

Now I just have to get all my things from storage. They’re holding quite a bit of my yarn hostage! Speaking of which…

This past week I signed a lease to rent a 3 bedroom house!! We move in on April 15th. Now, though, we’re having problems with the moving company and getting delivery of our things. The moving company we went through is now saying that they want to charge us for having our things delivered, when we shouldn’t be. I’ll find out more about that next week – they’re supposed to cover it! See… the Navy covered all the moving expenses, being this is our final move. Originally we were going to move to Dayton, OH. Well, things changed and we’re going to be in Florence, KY now. That is an hour from Dayton, OH. Not that far. By what the Navy pays for, since Nick is retiring, we can move anywhere in the United States and they will pick up the cost (so long as we aren’t over our weight limit, of course). The bottom line is that we are not supposed to be charged anything for this move. Well, somewhere someone along the way screwed some things up and our things shouldn’t have been shipped to Dayton, OH, they should have stayed in CT until we were ready for them. The people that are handling all the move stuff are more focused on why our things didn’t stay in CT then getting things fixed and set up to come to us in Florence! *sigh* Hopefully it will all be sorted out very soon.

I started my sweater today and I’m halfway done with the first sock of a pair of ankle socks that I started yesterday. Photos soon :o)

I’ve completed my Yarrow Ribbed socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks. I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock light weight in Cobalt Bloom. I really like them, but they are a little thick to wear with shoes. I suppose they’ll just be house socks, but I love how they fit! I used a short row heel for these and I think this is now my favorite heel. They fit so much better than socks I’ve knit with gussets and all that jazz.

Pattern: Yarrow Ribbed socks from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage SocksYarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock light weight in Cobalt BloomNeedles: 5, US 2 Bamboo DPN’sTime: Started 2/8/07, Completed 3/23/07Notes: I like how they stripe. I didn’t plan it that way, it just sort of happened in a striped spiral and they even matched on accident! I like the short row heel and short toes. Seems every time I make a pair of socks they keep getting better and I’m finding out what really works for me.

Next up, a pair of ankle socks out of this lovely yarn I picked up about two weeks ago:

I made this for a swap on Craftster.org – the Panta Swap. Here’s the panta I sent.

Pattern: Panta from CraftsterYarn: Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool color 24 – used every last bit of it.Needles: US 5’sTime: Completed March 20, 2007 – I think it took me about a week to knitNotes: This is actually the first panta I’ve ever knit. I like how it came out though!

After nearly two weeks of impatiently waiting, it’s here! A whole sweater’s worth of Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK in Porcelain which I will be making Starlight from Rowan’s Classic Style Book 16. I love this yarn!

I’m having a real problem trying to not cast on right now! I have to finish this panta for the panta swap before I can cast on for my sweater. I’m almost done and should be done today, but I just love this yarn and want to start swatching RIGHT NOW!

This is my last big yarn purchase for a long while. I’ll probably start knitting only from stash until Knitter’s Connection in June so that I can save up some money for that. I’m sure this will be keeping me plenty busy anyway :o)

Is anyone going to go or thinking about going to Knitter’s Connection? It’s June 6 – 10, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio.

I’ve officially registered! I didn’t sign up for any classes on Wednesday, but I did sign up for classes on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Columbus is about 2 hours from me, but I’m planning on getting a hotel since I’m doing 12 hours of classes over 3 days. By paying for the classes now gives me time to put money aside for a hotel, food, and yarn/fiber money while I’m there.

Anyhow… if anyone is thinking about going or planning on going, I wouldn’t mind splitting the cost of a hotel room! Plus, if you’re flying in from out of town, I’ll have my car with me and could pick you up from the airport and if it’s cheaper get a hotel a little bit away from the one they’re holding it at (at the Hyatt Regency it is $132 per night for two queen beds).

If you’re interested let me know! Leave a comment with your email address and we can chat about it offline 😀

Have you heard the news? Eunny Jang is the new editor of Interweave Knits Magazine! I have so much respect for her as a fiber artist and writer. Congrats to her! This is just one more reason why I need to get a subscription already :o)

Not a whole lot of knitting going on around here. I am working on some ATC’s for a swap, though. Speaking of which…. I need to get back to that….

Well, my Sock-ret Pal, Janet, has received her package, so I’ll finally post the socks I sent her!

The pattern is Chalet Socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush. I used Lorna’s Laces in Grapevine on US 1 DPNs. I followed the pattern almost completely. I only made one modification to the pattern in the back. I continued the back leg pattern down the heel. I started these on Jan. 12,2007 and completed them on Feb. 23, 2007.

I’m going to be using the recommended yarn – Rowan RYC Silk Wool DK in Porcelain. Now, normally I’d be all for a substitute for such a large project and I was all for it trying to find just the right yarn to use as a substitute when Nick said “Just get it, honey!” As much as I tried to say no and continue to search for a substitute, I just couldn’t say no! We discussed this very large yarn purchase and decided that if I don’t get it now while we can afford it, it will be a long time before I have enough extra money to afford sweater quantities of such a nice (and expensive) yarn.

But…. there was a small problem. I ordered 20 skeins of the yarn (the pattern calls for 19 for the largest size and I wanted one extra “just in case”) and just found an email in my in-box saying that they are one skein short and it will take 7 days to get the yarn to them, then another 2-3 days to get it to me. Now, I’m not a patient person at all. In fact, since Sunday night when I ordered the yarn, I’ve been impatiently waiting thinking that it would be here today or tomorrow. Silly me didn’t check my email and didn’t know until tonight that there was any sort of problem! They were right on and sent the email right away… it was just me holding up the whole process. So… it’ll be at least another week and a half before I get my yarn. Though that makes me sad, I did buy some yarn today for the Panta swap on Craftster and some really pretty sock yarn (it was just one skein because that’s all they had, but it will become ankle socks for me).

In other knitting related things (since I haven’t been posting!)… I am sending my Sock-ret Pal’s last package out tomorrow morning, so stay tuned for a post about the socks I sent! I just finished a sock for me a few days ago and I’ve already started the second one. I don’t have much on the needles right now. Thinking about starting the Argosy scarf from Knitty’s Winter 2006 issue. I got some yarn for it some time ago, but my knitting time was consumed by my Sock-ret Pal’s socks, so I set it aside. Pictures forthcoming of all the good knitting stuff that I’ve been buying and working on.

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As a side note…. how do you respond to comments on Blogger? I’m used to LiveJournal where you can respond to someone directly below their comment and also get the response directly in their email. I’m still not too “in the know” about Blogger even though I’ve been using it a while. In my last post someone mentioned emailing links to pictures of the socks, but I don’t know how I’d go about that since I don’t know anyone’s email. Should I put something in the side bar to create an email list? Like sign up to get replies to your comments? I’m not sure what to do. Any ideas? What do YOU do? Thanks in advance for any help :o)